On July 15 I attended a very sad City of North Vancouver council meeting. One of the items on the agenda was a motion related to the awarding of the affordable housing space in the Onni project at 13th and Lonsdale. At earlier public hearings representatives of several non-profit organizations, including the YWCA, supported the project because of their interest in the community amenity: affordable units for their clients.
My Own Space, an organization devoted to the housing needs of developmentally challenged adolescents, fielded the largest number of advocates, and apparently expected to be rewarded with the affordable units as a result. Staff, however, assured the public that there would be a public process to choose the beneficiaries. When the motion calling for expressions of interest came up to the full council four councillors voted for a public process, and three argued for an immediate award to the parent advocates.
Why should there be this kind of conflict in an affluent community in an affluent province in an affluent country, where housing is supposed to be a human right? Is it because of federal and provincial indifference to housing needs? One councillor thinks so. He referred to the awarding of affordable units as the municipality "doing the province's work for it." Presumably he's read "Housing Vulnerable Populations on the North Shore," the most recent report of The North Shore Homelessness Task Force. That report mentions wait lists of two to ten years for 446 City of North Vancouver applicants for below-market housing: single parent families, youth, low-income seniors, people with mental health problems, addictions and people with disabilities. What are we hearing from our provincial and federal representatives, Naomi Yamamoto and Andrew Saxton, about what they are doing to address these needs? Donna Stewart North Vancouver
